On Sunday, November 2, SIRenity closes out its sixth season with a brunch featuring an all-star Miss Gay Missouri America cast. The show, which will be hosted by Trixie LaRue and co-hosted by Akasha Royale, features forever MGMAs Vivian Versace, Tajma Stetson, and Tumara Mahorning, as well as reigning MGMA Penelope Booze. Brunch will be served at…
Ghosts of Alton Past
This feature originally ran in the October 25, 2023 issue of The Riverfront Times The year was 2015, and I’d been trying to set up an interview with Janet Kolar, Alton’s hearse-racing “Mistress of the Macabre” and proprietor of the Historic Museum of Torture Devices. I had first been drawn to Alton while exploring…
Private Reception for Jonathan Karrant in Advance of His Blue Strawberry Performance
There’s nothing like being in a room full of talented musicians, and that’s exactly where I found myself Monday evening as socialites Russell Jackson and Alex Gutierrez opened their beautifully converted Lafayette Square firehouse for an intimate gathering. The guest list included some of St. Louis’s finest entertainers—Ron Bryant, Adam Levinskas, Chuck Flowers, Kim Fuller,…
Right-Wing Group Vows to Doxx All Y’all
There’s only one thing Dent County, Missouri hates more than the free-thinking, outspoken Julie Heyn Strebe living among them, and that’s a bunch of St. Louis liberals opening their purses to move her here. They’re livid, vowing to harass every employer of hers going forward, and trying to get GoFundMe to pull the fundraiser. Now,…
The Salem (MO) Witch Trials
When a teen was kicked out for being gay, this progressive mom took him in. He destroyed her life over Charlie Kirk. “You gotta be fucking kidding me. Read this,” John Strebe said to his wife Julie Heyn Strebe as he passed the phone across the table last weekend. He had been scrolling Facebook when…
The Divine Dozen: The Region’s Best Gayborhoods
Critical Mass: The minimum size or amount of something required to start or maintain a venture. Our 2018 “Where We Live” cover story proved to be among our most widely read. Even years after it was released, readers would tell us that it had informed their decision on what neighborhoods to call home. With the…
Moral Superiority or Cringe? Take Our EZ Quiz!
In the aftermath of yesterday’s tragic assassination, social media is teeming with people climbing onto the moral high ground—some more securely than others. To help you determine whether you’re truly standing tall or just flailing in public with your moral pants down, we’ve created this quick and easy quiz. Answer “YES” to all the…
Alton’s Fearless Cory Davenport Has His Haters Working Overtime
Earlier this summer, someone made headlines—and a statement—by defacing the “Welcome to Alton” billboard with hate-filled messages targeting the town’s fearless, 6’3”, genderqueer, hard-hitting journalist, Cory Davenport, 36. It’s hard to imagine a progressive firebrand rattling this many cages in the region since 1836, when abolitionist publisher Elijah P. Lovejoy fled the slave state of…
Get Cheeky at the World Naked Bike Ride
Thousands of wildly costumed and nude cyclists will gather in Grove this afternoon for the World Naked Bike Ride. The costume contest will begin at 4:20pm with the following categories: Grooviest Moves Cutest Crew Hairiest Human Dopest DIY Most Outlandish The ride will begin at 6pm. It’s magical to ride through the city en masse…
Society Page: A Literary Salon at Geoff Story’s LaSalle Park Home
On Thursday evening, filmmaker Geoff Story and author Scott Alexander Hess hosted a vibrant queer literary salon at Story’s celebrated LaSalle Park home. The gathering, attended by an intergenerational mix of writers and readers, followed the New York-based Hess’s appearance at Left Bank Books, where he read from his latest novel, Drought. The evening’s lineup…